Introduction to Top Girls

Welcome to your study guide for Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls! This play is a powerful and unique addition to the "Later dramatic tragedies" section of your Oxford AQA International AS Level. While traditional tragedies often feature kings or generals, later tragedies like this one focus on ordinary people and the difficult choices they make in the modern world. In this play, we follow Marlene, a woman who has just been promoted to managing director of an employment agency. On the surface, she is a "top girl"—successful, wealthy, and powerful. However, as the play unfolds, we explore the tragic cost of her success. You will learn how Churchill uses experimental drama to show the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibility.

The Tragic Heroine: Marlene

In Unit 1, you must explore the tragic hero or heroine. Marlene is a modern tragic figure. She is not a royal figure, but she is a "public figure" in the world of business. The Tragic Flaw (Hamartia): Marlene’s flaw could be seen as her ruthless individualism. She believes that if she works hard enough, she can have everything, but she ignores the people she leaves behind. Tragic Isolation: By the end of the play, Marlene is successful in her career but isolated from her family. Her sister, Joyce, resents her, and Marlene has a very distant, cold relationship with her own daughter, Angie. Blindness and Insight: For much of the play, Marlene is "blind" to the suffering of other women who aren't as successful as she is. Her "insight" (or lack thereof) is a key point for you to argue in your essays.

Structure and Authorial Methods

Churchill uses very specific dramatic methods to tell this story. Understanding these will help you hit the AO2 requirements (analysing authorial methods).

1. The Non-Linear Plot

The play does not move in a straight line from beginning to end. - Act 1: A surreal dinner party with historical and fictional women from the past. - Act 2: Marlene’s life at the "Top Girls" agency and the story of the teenager, Angie. - Act 3: This act actually takes place one year before Act 2! Why do this? By showing us the past at the very end, Churchill forces the audience to see the significance of the past. We finally understand the secret Marlene has been hiding and the "order to disorder" shift in her family life.

2. Overlapping Dialogue

Churchill uses a famous technique where characters speak over one another. In the script, this is often marked with a slash (/). - What it means: It shows that the characters are often not listening to each other. Even when they are celebrating, there is a sense of disorder and lack of connection.

3. The Use of the Stage

Churchill uses the stage to contrast different worlds. The "public" world of the sleek London office is very different from the "domestic" world of Joyce’s kitchen in Suffolk. This helps show the settings for the tragedy—the gap between the wealthy city and the struggling working class. Quick Review: Remember that "significance of the past" is a new focus for the June 2028 syllabus. Think about how Marlene’s decision to give up her child years ago haunts her current success.

Key Themes and Tragic Aspects

The Contest of Power

Tragedy often involves a contest of power. In Top Girls, this isn't a battle with swords, but a battle for jobs and status. Marlene wins the "contest" against her male colleague, Howard, but this victory leads to violence (though emotional rather than physical), as Howard’s wife comes to the office to beg Marlene to give the job back.

Class and Social Identity

The play explores how social class affects a person's journey. Marlene has escaped her working-class background, but her sister, Joyce, stayed behind. This creates a climax in Act 3 where the two sisters have a massive argument about politics and their different lives. This is the catastrophe of the play—the total breakdown of the family unit.

Pity and Fear

A tragedy should move the audience to feel pity and fear. - We might feel pity for Angie, the "slow" daughter who is left behind by a society that only values "top girls." - we might feel fear about a world where people have to give up their humanity to be successful.

Summary of Tragic Elements in Top Girls

- Type of Text: Domestic tragedy focused on ordinary people and social issues. - The Protagonist: Marlene, a flawed heroine who chooses career over community. - The Opponent: Sometimes Howard, but more often the social system itself. - Movement: From the "order" of Marlene's professional success to the "disorder" and emotional pain of her private life. - The End: Unlike Shakespearean tragedy, no one dies, but the "journey towards isolation" is just as final.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

- Don't treat it like a history book: Even though Act 1 features historical figures, focus on how they reflect Marlene's tragedy and the theme of women’s suffering through time. - Don't forget the "Play" aspect: Always mention that this is a drama. Talk about how the physical presence of characters on stage (like Angie standing in the office) creates tension. - Don't ignore Joyce: Marlene is the lead, but the tragedy is shared. Joyce represents the people who suffer because of the "top girls'" choices.

Key Takeaway

Top Girls is a tragedy of success. It asks the audience to consider: if you win the world but lose your family and your compassion, have you actually won? Marlene’s tragic isolation at the end of the play is her "downfall," even if she still has her high-paying job. For more on later dramatic tragedies, you can also look at other plays in this section such as Death of a Salesman or A Streetcar Named Desire to see how they also use domestic settings to explore tragic themes.